NY's Coumo goes after NYTs

The Cuomo administration is charging The New York Times with using its news pages to crusade against natural-gas drilling in the impoverished Southern Tier section upstate. "To get the story so blatantly wrong by posting a misleading headline on the Times' home page is a disservice to your readers," Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joseph Martens wrote to the paper Friday in reference to a Times "exclusive" that Cuomo had supposedly given a go-ahead to use the controversial hydrofracturing technique for gas drilling. "The Times has a responsibility to present accurate and balanced coverage of such a controversial matter, and it failed miserably in this case," Martens, a Cuomo appointee, continued. "The article, 'Cuomo Moving to End a Freeze on Gas Drilling,' failed to present an even and objective story. The single environmental viewpoint was that of the Environmental Advocates of NY when several other environmental groups -- the